An Interview with Uma Thurman

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IGN goes toe to toe with the smooth talking, Samurai sword-wielding Bride (a.k.a. Black Mamba) to talk about the first half of her mission to Kill Bill.

By Jeff Otto

Uma Thurman gained her first major acclaim for her role as the big man's wife in Pulp Fiction. A shot of adrenaline to the heart, a new baby and nine years later, Thurman arrives in another Tarantino film (actually in two if you consider the separate volumes as separate films) entitled Kill Bill: Volume 1.

Continuing to find interesting parts with good directors (for the most part... let us forget Batman and Robin and The Avengers), Uma has remained in the public eye. Sometimes a bit too much as of late, but that's another story for a supermarket trash rag. We're here to talk Kill Bill, baby.

The idea for Bill first came about waaaay back in the days of Pulp Fiction. Tarantino told Thurman about an idea he had for a film about a female Samurai. At the time, he wrote a few pages, then shelved it to concentrate on Jackie Brown and a World War II project entitled Inglorious Bastards. Finally, Uma brought the Samurai movie up again. Tarantino looked back at those pages he wrote all those years ago and realized he had his next project. Although Uma's pregnancy would temporarily halt the start of production, Quentin was dead set on his leading lady.

As the doors open and Uma Thurman saunters into the room to meet the press, it's hard not to get a little giddy. She truly has the look of a movie star down pat. The first thing to take notice of is her height: easily over six feet in heels. The second is her striking and unique beauty. Finally, and most importantly, is the glow of happiness. Some may say it's an act, but if so, it's one hell of a show. Breaking tradition, Ms. Thurman walks around the room and greets each one of us individually. "Hi, I'm Uma," she says to me. "Hi, Jeff," is at least what I think I said but I mean, who the hell knows?

Quentin Tarantino, Master Wu Ping Yuen, and Uma Thurman on the set of Kill Bill

Uma is first asked whether martial arts make her feel sexy. "Sexy?" Uma ponders with a sly grin. "Well, it depends on how much you like long, sharp instruments in your romantic activities, I guess. I can't quite say that that would be my weapon of choice in bed. But, going through that whole process and doing the three months of training with Master Wu Ping. They trained me five days a week for three months from nine in the morning until five o'clock at night and we were not to be late and I never got to leave early. So, just surviving that was really empowering. I'm the last person that would've thought that I would be ever asked to be so tough. So, it was a big reach to kind of go through all that. It was very empowering to make it out alive from The House of Blue Leaves with my joints semi-intact."